Name: The Eyre Affair
Rating: 3.79020979020979 (143 reviews)
ISBN: 9780142001806

Jasper Fforde

In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature.

A Novel

The Eyre Affair

ikkychan

The theme of literary crossover has been the source of furious and lively debates among the fans and scholars alike. Some argue the possibilities of the sanctity of the ‘storyline’ would be compromised with the sudden collaboration; some others wonder how the established canon and continuity of each literary work would be affected; while some are high with anticipation of the interaction between characters who would not meet otherwise. I would put myself in the latter category as I believe the idea of a shared universe would push the boundary of worldbuilding and enrich the creative reinterpretation of different novels. While I also agree that combining multiple literary worlds can be a complex and hefty feat as the crossover could sacrifice the authenticity of each work or fail to capture their essence and characterization, were the execution succeeded in blending the different elements and weave them effortlessly into one narrative, I would be chuffed to bits. Just like I felt when I read ‘The Eyre Affair’ by Jasper Fforde. The year is 1985. The Crimean War between Britain and Tsarist Russia was well into its 150th anniversary. This is a universe capable of rare coexistence between science and mystics as the occurrence of time-traveling or vampire infestation are just another Tuesday — and well-anticipated by the government as there are 30 different law departments (or SpecOps) each with their own specialization ranging from dealing with time-space anomaly (SO 12), Vampire and Lycanthrope infestation (SO9) or book forgeries (SO 27) — which is where our protagonist Thursday Next is stationed. Being a part of society that deeply appreciates and honors the power of literature (to its utmost, absurd extent), Thursday day-to-day duty as a book detective is to hunt down counterfeit and fabricated literary pieces as it is regarded as one of the most heinous crimes ever done to a writing. To everyone's surprise, it turns out that forgery is not the worst fate that can befall a book; homicide is. Acheron Hades, one of the world's top three most wanted men, has perpetrated an unimaginable criminal act: kidnapping and killing characters from a book, thereby risking altering the story forever. He has experimented on Mr. Quaverley, a minor character from Charles Dickens' 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' extracting him using the Prose Portal, a curious creation of Thursday's uncle, Mycroft Next. His eyes have now shifted on a bigger fish in the literature pond: Jane Eyre. Can Thursday save her favorite Victorian heroine? The world that Jasper Fforde created has fascinated me to no end. While the inundation of characters and intricate worldbuilding may seem over the top in certain fantasy fiction cases, the writer managed to combine every piece of elements in the details, fitting them perfectly into the puzzle and bringing the story to life with remarkable ease. There were countless clever embellishment Fforde use in portraying how a society deeply obsessed with literature would behave; Shakespeare jukebox, thousands of John Miltons and few hundreds of Percy Shelleys, door-to-door Baconian controversialist (Excuse Me Sir, do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Francis Bacon?), and an entire set of Richard III where the play is ‘for the audience, to the audience, BY THE AUDIENCE!' (much to the chuckle of The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Monty Python fans). Thursday could come and meet all sorts of people from all walks of life and they would actively engage in discussions about literary theories on who really writes Shakespeare’s plays, displaying their extensive knowledge and passion for books quite effortlessly. At the same time, the book also masterfully merge sci-fi elements into the story with Thursday’s renegade time-traveler father, Colonel Next, where he unexpectedly jumps in and out of the narrative in his obscure quest of altering major history change (quite a funny way to interpret the absence of father figure in most families), the invention of Bookworms and Prose Portal or the random space-and-time irregularities; all the details are skillfully employed to advance the storyline, with none taken for granted, creating a heightened sense of total immersion where everything falls gracefully into place and this whole wacky universe suddenly makes perfect sense. 'She is everything a woman should be. Strong and resourceful, loyal and intelligent' was Bowden Cable’s description of Thursday, and I would wholeheartedly agree to that. Thursday Next is an exceptional protagonist, brimming with captivating quirks, a sharp wit, intellect, and street savvy. Her opposition is just as formidable as she is; Acheron is one hell of an antagonist. He is repugnant, quite detestable and I was deeply impressed by his total absence of scruples. Driven by his insatiable thirst for power and control, he exerts a strange supernatural capabilities that defies the law of physics and hardly anyone could withstand his devilish persuasive prowess, aside from Thursday. Their game of cat and mouse has kept the storyline entertaining throughout, albeit it ends in a rather anticlimactic way. Despite the fact that the rest of the characters are quite ordinary and relatively commonplace (except for Thursday and Acheron), Fforde fairly compensate for their lack of notable uniqueness by infusing the character’s names with puns and wordplay, creating allusion to their personality and clever references, like Jack Schitt, Braxton Hicks, Landen Park-Laine, Spike Stoker and Millon de Floss. His creative use of names adds an extra layer of enjoyment for readers who appreciate clever linguistic twists, making this book a pleasant reading in multiple dimensions. While it’s true that I have been showering this book in constant praise, “The Eyre Affair” is not without its annoying drawbacks. Some of the sentiments Thursday harbors every time she is thinking about her age and her diminishing chance of matrimony would not fly by this generation, who welcome the idea of being a childfree and single woman in their 40’s enthusiastically. I also find the immediate condemnation and demonization of Daisy Mutlar as the ‘Other Woman’ highly problematic as it gives one-dimensional and shallow treatment to other female characters (not that there were many to begin with). I notice that both of them were used to present marriage and child-bearing as this ideal that everybody covets, like Colonel’s remarks on Thursday’s wedding day, ‘It's high time little Thursday here was popping out some sprogs instead of dashing around like some wild mountain piglet’. Uh-oh, Colonel, your alluring comparison between your only daughter and some wild animal is most definitely not the best of choice. This ambitious literary crossover project has been the most delightful I’ve ever found. The story has given the familiar world of Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester a new and fresh perspective while remaining true to their dynamic. The imaginative storytelling Fforde conjured has imbibed ‘Jane Eyre’ with hidden narratives that, as the story goes, I would never read the novel in quite the same way as I constantly ponder what Thursday Next and Acheron Hades would be doing in every chapter. Each part of the story seamlessly blends elements of fantasy, romance, thriller and sci-fi with such finesse that it never ceases to astonish me how a book can be so unapologetically amusing and playful while also demonstrating such impressive intellectual depth. I have had my fill of this insanely fun piece and I would very much like to continue reading Thursday’s adventure in the next book!

There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where Thursday Next is a literary detective without squat, fear, or boyfriend. Thursday is on the trait of the villainous Acheron Hades, who has been kidnapping characters from works of fiction and holding them to ransom. Jane Eyre herself has been plucked from the novel of the same name, and Thursday must find a way into the book to repair the damage. She also has to find time to halt the ongoing Crimean conflict, persuade the man she loves to marry her, rescue her aunt from inside a Wordsworth poem and figure out who really wrote Shakespeare's plays. Aided and abetted by a cast of characters that includes her time-travelling father, Jack Schitt of the all-power Goliath Corporation, a pet dodo named Pickwick and Edward Rochester himself, Thursday embarks on an adventure that will take your breath away. A delight for anyone who has ever wondered where bananas come from or why Leigh Delamere motorway services are so peculiarly named, The Eyre Affair is classic storytelling at its most engrossing. The world will never look the same again...

Melanie Knight

I was disappointed by this book. I wanted to love it and I did like the Douglas Adams-style irreverence and absurdity and the idea of being able to jump into classic novels, but as a whole, it didn't grip me. I didn't feel a strong pull towards any of the main characters, despite wanting to like and identify with Thursday Next.

A brilliantly unique ode to book lovers, such a creative and expansive read!

Beth Bartholomew

Anja Hansen

If I were to describe my feelings towards this book in one word, I would choose indifferent. The plot sounds fun and imaginative, but I think it was executed poorly. I sadly couldn't get myself to care for anything or anyone in the novel., which is too bad because I love Jane Eyre. 
Also, I believe this is supposed to be funny?? idk maybe it's just not my type of humour

Katherine Yang

Recommended to me by a friend and it's SO up my alley I'm so delighted. "Comic fantasy, alternate history, metafiction, literary allusions and wordplay" please 😍

Particularly loved the couple of pages featuring genetically engineered bookworms belching apostrophes, ampersands & unnecessary capital letters.

Cindy McKee

If Monty Python had a baby with Lewis Carroll, that baby would be this series. Quirky, full of references only a book lover will appreciate, and a terrific premise that only gets better with each crazy book. Jasper Fforde has created a fabulous series that this book lover adores! ❤️ Bonus points for having such a magical website that carries on the silliness, well done, sir. Well done indeed. ✨✨🤣Now, if he'd only start publishing again, Life would be complete. Luckily, I still have all his other books to keep me happy.

Amanda

Great concept, poor execution. The world-building and characters are fantastic. The story is underwhelming and boringly told.

Charmingly written, with an interesting plot, deep characters and a very interesting precepts - well worth a read!

Maggie Gordon

Really amazing set of concepts, but WAY too many of them in one novel (time travel, jumping into books, gene slicing, secret agencies, military conspiracies, and dodo birds!).

Celeste Richardson

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

This entire series has my name written all over it. A plucky, intelligent heroine. Literary references galore. Dry, sharp British humor. An alternate history where every single British citizen is obsessed with the written word to the point of religious zeal. Tongue-in-cheek character names that fit their eponymous charges perfectly. The essential involvement of one of my very favorite classics, Jane Eyre. And yet, for some reason, The Eyre Affair fell a bit flat for me. I still enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it as much as I had hoped. However, my hope is that my reading mood will have shifted by the time I continue with the series, and that Thursday’s series will become one of my favorites. It deserves to be.
“Take no heed of her.... She reads a lot of books.”
Thursday Next is a British agent working for their LiteraTec branch. Her job is to track down stolen literary manuscripts and keep forgeries off the streets. This isn’t the most exciting of government jobs but, as a returning veteran from the Crimean War, which has raged on for 131 years in this alternate history, Thursday doesn’t mind the quiet too terribly. She’s bored, but she’s safe. However, when she gets dragged into an investigation involving the original manuscript of Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit and a former professor of hers, life gets a whole lot more interesting.
“The barriers between reality and fiction are softer than we think; a bit like a frozen lake. Hundreds of people can walk across it, but then one evening a thin spot develops and someone falls through; the hole is frozen over by the following morning.”
I loved all of the literary references here. Speaking of which, I believe it’s pretty essential to have read Jane Eyre before reading this book, as its plot becomes so central to the story in the back half of The Eyre Affair. There was also a plethora of puns and grammatical wordplay, which was fun. However, there was something about the humor that felt a bit too self-satisfied for me to fully enjoy it. At any other time I would have probably loved it, but unfortunately it didn’t work for my current mood. The humor actually reminded me a bit of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which also fell a bit flat for me. I also got a bit lost in the bureaucracy and internal politics at work in Thursday’s Great Britain. I found myself becoming bored and skimming, which isn’t something I usually do. On the plus side, the characters were incredibly charming. I found Thursday’s time rogue of a father and mad inventor of an uncle particularly fascinating.
“Sometimes, a word succeeds beyond the wildest dreams of its creators, like a virus sent into the world to infect common speech.”
Even though I didn’t fully connect with The Eyre Affair, it was still largely enjoyable. I love the thought of a world where kids swap authors and poets like baseball cards, and where there are entire cults dedicated to different theories of Shakespearean authorship. I love the idea of a world in which Jane Eyre has a terrible ending, but is beloved anyway, and where neither time nor literature are set in stone. I’ll be interested to see where Thursday’s life goes next.

You can find  this review and more at Novel Notions.

Vilde

4.5

Absolutely ridiculous, and hilariously entertaining to read. Cannot wait to read more by Fforde.

Sarah Escorsa

➽ And the moral of this rerereread is: one of the most creatively original worlds ever created + delicious literary references galore + being meringued (don't ask) + most heavenly Brit humor/wit/sarcasm combo + bookworms farting apostrophes and ampersands, and belching out capitalisations (I told you not to ask) + a super extra cool, clever as fish kick ass heroine who's a war veteran and dares to be over 35 (the nerve!) + Shakespearean shenanigans + pet dodos + unnotified SpaceTime Flexations + one of the mostest awesomest villainous villains ever (and accompanying odious yet art-loving fiendish compatriots) + Jane Eyre and Rochester and St John Rivers, oh my! + I could be here all day listing all the somewhat very scrumptiously scrumptious details that make this book so bloody shrimping scrumptious but I'll settle for a celebratory dance instead. 



Such smooth moves I hath. Pretty amazing, is it not?

And also this, in honor of Our Blessed Lady of the Lobsters (because duh): 



👋 To be continued and stuff.

• Book 2: Lost in a Good Book ★★★★★
• Book 3: The Well of Lost Plots ★★★★★
• Book 4: Something Rotten ★★★★★
• Book 5: First Among Sequels ★★★★
• Book 6: One of Our Thursdays is Missing ★★★
• Book 7: The Woman Who Died a Lot ★★★★
• Book 8: Dark Reading Matter -  to be published



[June 2013]

(I think I was slightly very high on superior quality stuff when I wrote that supremely crappy bit about being disappointed by this book ↓)

I read the Eyre Affair when it was first published but decided to read the whole series again before burying myself in its last instalment, The Woman Who Died a Lot.

I have to say that reading this for the second time I was actually quite disappointed. The story is as original as I remembered it but the book isn’t as fast-paced as it was in my memory. Still, I love the world Fforde has created. Ingenious to the very last detail, clever and full of literary twists. A very enjoyable read!

Liz Carpenter

3.5 stars. As funny and clever as The Chronicles of St. Mary's, but with more books and fewer gruesome character deaths.

There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where the Crimean war still rages, dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits and everyone is deeply disappointed by the ending of 'Jane Eyre'. In this world there are no jetliners or computers, but there are policemen who can travel across time, a Welsh republic, a great interest in all things literary - and a woman called Thursday Next. In this utterly original and wonderfully funny first novel, Fforde has created a fiesty, loveable heroine and a plot of such richness and ingenuity that it will take your breath away.

Alexandra Mellas

‘The barriers between reality and fiction are softer than we think.’

Jasper Fforde has made the world of literary classics into an intriguing and fascinating world of mystery and conflict. With Baconian’s and Oxford supporters promoting the ‘true’ author of Shakespeares plays, SpecOps fighting werewolves and a super-villain who can’t be caught on film, Fforde creates a literary world surrounding LitTech Thursday Next’s adventures.

Fforde’s books, and the subsequence sequels, surround the ‘Book World’ a place individuals from the mundane world and characters from the literary worlds can move between. Encounters with Mr Quaverly, Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre cause chaos in the ‘real’ world where villain Archeron Hades has not only kidnapped Thursday’s eccentric uncle Mycroft and his latest invention, but he steals the original manuscripts of both Charles Dicken’s Martin Chuzzlewit and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. 

The narrative is constantly moving and evolving, new information coming to light and being cast on the protagonist – Thursday Next. ‘I was born on the Thursday and named Thursday. My brother was born on a Friday and he was named Anton.’ Fforde’s Thursday is considered by critics such as Juliette Wells, as a recreation of the literary classic Jane Eyre, with a plain appearance and a practical nature. Fforde weaves a parallel with the classic, not only in the characterisation of Next, but in the events that follow her through the novel. The man she loves is crippled, the wedding of her partner is interrupted by a solicitor and her uncle, like Jane’s, opens up a whole new world for her. 

Fforde provides the reader with a strong background for the adventure in the existing tales of Jane Eyre and Martin Chuzzlewit, that parallel the tale, but doesn’t make it necessary to know more than the basic plot of the narratives in order to follow The Eyre Affair. Of course, having taken ten years to write, and be published, Fforde was sure to provide enough tidbits, much like DVD easter eggs, for those who have enjoyed the classics to enjoy character and plot jokes that the uninitiated would unfortunately miss.

Often a book or novel is thought to be made up of nothing more than the words that create the story. However, it takes much more than just the story for the fantastical secondary world existing within the text to manifest. Few take into account the materials that are crucial to reading and understanding a novel, and most, if not all, contain much more than the words that tell a story. Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair is a detailed example of a story existing beyond its words, for while all texts have the title, cover, publishers, blurbs and acknowledgements that are part of the creation, The Eyre Affair is a stronger, more resounding evidence of paratext.

Fforde doesn’t leave his reader with merely the words on the pages of his book to tell the story, but provides a colourful array of paratext surrounding the narrative. Gerard Genette who conceptionalised paratext explained it as ‘the means by which a text makes a book of itself and proposes itself as such to its readers, and more generally to the public.’ Fforde has created the paratext of The Eyre Affair through a series of websites surrounding his books where he has posted pictures, encyclopaedias, vouchers, advertising and legal notices that bring the world of The Eyre Affair out from the pages. Jasper Fforde's website, provides the links to the websites of each of his novels, including the Thursday Next Chronicles. Paratext is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon through the advancement of technology, and provides a way for authors to interact further with their fans, through interviews, additional story details and publishing updates. 

To truly enjoy the wonderment of The Eyre Affair a reader must enjoy not only the words, but the other myriad details that Fforde provides us with. I recommend Jasper Fforde to anyone with a basic understanding of the classics, and a willingness to find the humour in the most boring of characters.

Sahi K

** spoiler alert **
           
My only feeling is why didn’t I read this book earlier. I only discovered this series a couple of weeks ago and when I finally read it, it was fantastic.

The book is set in London in 1985 but it technologically much more advanced. People have cloned versions of extinct animals as pets which are perfected with every version, England and Russia are in a century long war over the occupation of Crimea, a Special Operations (SpecOps) department called Chronoguard deals with time travel, temporal instabilities etc. Our protagonist Thursday Next works for SpecOps-27 as a LiteraTec (Literary detective) because in this world, books are valued a lot. Baconians go door-to-door trying to persuade people that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays, there is a militant Marlovian group that believes that the author is Kit Marlowe instead, each famous author has federations named after them with millions of followers.

It is in this world that an original Dickens manuscript is stolen by a most wanted criminal called Acheron Hades and Thursday investigates. Her uncle develops a Prose Portal using which you can jump into the world of any book and meet the living, breathing characters. When he is kidnapped by Hades, it is only a matter of time before a character from the Dickens manuscript is killed, which in turn removes the character from all the copies of the book in the world. But this is only the beginning and all hell breaks lose when Hades steals the original manuscript of Jane Eyre. In the course of negotiations, both Hades and Thursday end up jumping into the Jane Eyre world and it is here that Hades is finally defeated but not before the ending is changed dramatically (which is what we now know).

The book is so much fun, especially for book worms like me. There are a lot of literary references in the book, some of which I didn’t know but was able to find out. The Prose Portal is a wonderful idea and any number of readers will want to visit the worlds of their favorite books. The only slight disappointment was with the motivation of Hades. A genius who believed that before his intellect, the whole world looks infested with cretins ends up just wanting to earn money. His character warranted a little more ambition than just plain old greed. But on the whole, this is an awesome world and I am all excited to be a part of Thursday’s adventures in the next books.

Jeni Enjaian

A review from my old blog...

I added this book to my list due to the recommendation of one of my favorite authors, Angela Hunt.

I found myself utterly fascinated by this book. Fforde weaves together the worlds of all of these different books and a changed "what-if" history. I have always wanted to be part of the stories that I read and Fforde opens a door with a brilliant idea that I never even conceived.

I found myself confused at points but that confusion could have been averted most likely by slowing down and reading slower but I was so into the book that I didn't want to. I loved how Fforde weaved in all of these classics from literature, books that most people probably don't even know exist. I absolutely love how big of a crime plagiarism becomes.

The only downside to the book was the, in my opinion, inappropriate naming of one of the characters a curse word spelled with just two letters differently but pronounced the same. A few other curse words were sprinkled throughout the book but nothing that I couldn't deal with.

The Eyre Affair A Novel

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